Moonbug’s Jo Galpin on community, collaboration and creativity

Jo, it’s great to tie-in. To kick us off, how did you find your way into licensing? Was it always on the cards?
It was a happy accident and the culmination of over 15 years’ experience in global media companies. Working across publishing, music, tv and magazines, I gained experience in contracts management, consumer comms, brand/ shopper insights and social media marketing. I landed at The Walt Disney Company in the EMEA licensing team in an executive support role, which really opened my eyes to the scale, creativity and playfulness of this incredible industry – and the phenomenally talented people who work within it.

I was really fortunate to be able to pivot into a commercial role when joining Moonbug as the first official member of our Consumer Products & Experiences team just over four years ago.

“With our IP being native to YouTube, we are able to foster a sense of community among our fans.”

You’re International Hardlines Category Manager at Moonbug, as well as looking after cross-category country management for Italy and the Middle East. What guides your approach to identifying opportunities for Moonbug’s slate of IP?
Moonbug is a digital-first company. Because all of our IP are born and bred on YouTube, we have access to incredible insights into our audiences which we can then leverage into products. Because my role has both a regional lens and specific country focuses, understanding the individual market nuances – in the context of global franchises – is really important in ensuring we’re serving each consumer appropriately.

What do you think is the key to successful, creative collaborations between licensors and licensees?
Understanding our IP and why it resonates with our consumers is really key to developing great product and also continuing that journey off-screen for our audience. You’ll find music in many of our key drivers for CoComelon because it’s the beating heart of the brand. Similarly, fans of Blippi encounter the world through curiosity, so we look to embed this principle in the play patterns of our products.

With our IP being native to YouTube, we are able to foster a sense of community among our fans – something which also resonates with many of our partners… So tapping into these communities really helps our collaborations to succeed.

Are there any recent launches you feel highlight how creative licensees can be with Moonbug IP?
I love our CoComelon Transforming School Bus from Jazwares, which is a vehicle and playset-in-one. They’ve been able to take a successful evergreen product and extend the play patterns and functionality by allowing it to transform from a vehicle into the Melon Patch Academy classroom – which will be so iconic for fans of the show.

It would also be remiss of me not to mention CoComelon – Kids Learn & Play which is our new fun and interactive learning app. We’ve taken songs from the show and used those as inspiration for themes and activities, all designed by experts to help build early life skills.

Great picks! We recently covered the launch of the Blippi tonie. What made this collaboration make sense for you?
Blippi and tonies fans have a lot in common. Both have a community fanbase and there was unprecedented demand for a Blippi tonie – fans had even taken to creating their own while they waited. Executing the audio experience to capture the essence of the brand without visuals was a challenge, but I worked really closely with our amazing Blippi team and tonies to deliver a truly immersive, interactive format. It takes fans on an adventure with Blippi through narrative storytelling, gameplay and, of course, a healthy dose of what we at Moonbug like to call ‘Blippi bangers’ – our original music for the brand! It’s the first ‘live action’ tonie in their licensed portfolio which I’m really proud of.

Blippi bangers! We’ll dedicate a separate interview to exploring those! Now, are there any of your brands that you feel remain relatively untapped licensing-wise? What is ripe with product potential?
There’s so many to choose from, but we’re really excited with the momentum behind Morphle and the Magic Pets. We developed an original format of this popular YouTube franchise with the team at Disney and within one month of launching on Disney+, it was the number four most watched pre-school show. A new toy line has just launched at Walmart in the US, which the team at Just Play have done a fantastic job on, so now fans can take home a piece of Morphle magic too.

Jo, this has been great. I have one last question! What fuels your creativity?
I have two boys – aged six and three – and watching them make sense of the world through play is a huge inspiration to me, not just for product ideation but also a desire to do things better for them and future generations. They are also very keen product testers!

I bet! Thanks again Jo.